Sentinels image gallery

Poyang lake area flood in July 2016

Comparison of images captured on July 11th 2015 and July 5th 2016 with Sentinel-1A. They cover the Chinese provinces of Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui, showcasing the effects of this year’s El Niño event on the Yangtze flood plain. Reservoirs and lakes are completely filled, and islands within the Yangtze Riverbed have been deluged. At top left of the image, the Wuhan City neighbourhood is visibly affected (blue areas).

This is a Sentinel-1A radar satellite test image, taken on May 26th 2016, which was relayed to the ground by EDRS-A on May 31st 2016 via laser beam. The image, a false-colour composite based on the radar’s two polarisation channels, depicts the island of La Reunion and its surrounding waters, and was acquired in Sentinel-1A’s ‘Stripmap’ mode.

This map was generated using Sentinel-1A images spanning the year between March 2015 and March 2016. It shows the village of Thyborøn, Denmark. Each coloured square represents a measurement of the ground deformation. Warm colours (orange, red, yellow) indicate subsidence (downwards movement of the land), and cool colours (green, blue) show uplift. A trend from stability in the west of the village to subsidence towards the east can be discerned. This causes problems for wastewater pipes in the area. There is also a high rate of subsidence around the harbour.

This is a false-colour image captured by Sentinel-2A on February 22th, 2016 over north-eastern Iran, the second largest country in the Middle East. A dryland area, most of Iran’s territory is classified as arid and semi-arid, about half of which is characterised by rangeland, barren land and mountains.

Visible in the centre of the image and at the top left are alluvial fans (deposits of sediment from streams). At the top left, resembling brush strokes in a painting, the seasonal accumulation of water and various salt minerals is evident in greys and whites. Scattered throughout the image are many agricultural plots, distinct in such an arid and mountainous region, which also features various rocky formations.

The shades of red indicate how sensitive the multispectral instrument on Sentinel-2A is to differences in chlorophyll content, providing key information on vegetation health. Towns or settlements are represented in grey colours throughout the image.

The island of Tongatapu and the nearby smaller islands – all part of the Kingdom of Tonga archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean – are pictured in this Sentinel-2A image from May 23rd, 2016. Built on limestone, the island has fertile soil of volcanic ash from neighbouring volcanoes, and agricultural structures can be seen to cover most of the island.

North of the island we can see many coral reefs in the ocean. Although not part of its original mission objectives, scientists are experimenting with Sentinel-2 to monitor corals and detect coral bleaching – a consequence of higher water temperatures. Bleaching occurs when algae living in the corals’ tissues, which capture the Sun’s energy and are essential to coral survival, are expelled due to the higher temperatures. The whitening coral may die, with subsequent effects on the reef ecosystem, and thus on fisheries, regional tourism and coastal protection.

The recent El Niño weather phenomenon has caused increased bleaching across the world’s corals, and scientists are finding Sentinel-2’s coverage helpful in monitoring this phenomenon at reef-wide scales.

The Sentinel-3A satellite caught this image of a dust storm blowing east across the Red Sea on July 25th 2016.

Dust storms, or sandstorms, are usually the result of a large mass of cold air moving swiftly across dry ground covered with loose sand and silt. They are remarkable natural phenomena that can cause major ecological and agricultural damage.

Dust storms can be a major contributor to reduced air quality and can be hazardous to human health.

Other visible features include the Nile River on the upper left side of the image, and the orange sands of the Arabian Desert in the upper right.

Sentinel-3 carries a suite of instruments to monitor Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere for Europe’s Copernicus programme. This image was captured by Sentinel-3’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI).

Various countries in the Mediterranean Sea were captured last May 10th by the Sentinel-3A satellite, as shown in this false-colour image. Parts of Greece, Turkey and Libya are featured, showing their distinct relief differences. In the middle of the image is the Greek island of Crete, dominated by harsh mountains rising out of the sea.

The landscape of Crete is characterised by mountain ranges reaching some 2400 m, along with natural harbours, coastal plains and the typical Mediterranean scrub. Northwest of Crete is a large part of Greece’s mainland, showing dense vegetation and agricultural landscape, while under the clouds a small part of Italy’s ‘heel and tip’ is visible. At the top right of the image, parts of southwestern Turkey are distinct, indicating a mixture of agricultural landscape and mountainous regions, where bare soil and rock formations prevail. At the bottom of the image, Libya’s arid desert is evident, with the Saharan plateau comprising some nine-tenths of the country, making it truly a sea of sand.

Fires around Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, were captured by the Sentinel-3A Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer’s (SLSTR) visible and infrared channels on May 7th 2016. The red dots show active fires.